Beware of SEO Marketing Hype

Are you about to use a SEO expert because of marketing hype? Beware!
Day after day, you may see marketing hype asking you to use company XYZ as your SEO source for better search engine results.   Today, everyone is an SEO expert. These hype sources often assure you of page one results.   Some assure you more hits.     These sources may show you lists of past clients with "wonder results."   Beware, make sure this is not hype.   
When you sees such assurances, evaluate the assurances. Are they meaningful? What is being offered? 
To determine the value of this service for page 1 results, asking yourself the following questions:

• Are they showing sample results for real estate websites?
• Are they showing you results of a site in an internet community that has a population similar to the competitors in your community.
• What keywords are successful for the sample websites?
• Are the websites actually successful for the keywords specified for a client?
• Where on page one are the sites?

To determine the value of the service for hits, ask them the following questions:

• How are they providing additional hits?
• How will they (or you) monitor the conversion rate and bounce rate?
• What will your bounce rate be?
• What will your conversion rate be?

Why should you ask these questions? These question may help you determine their level of honesty and  service value. Here is why.
Are they showing sample results for real estate sites?  You have a real estate sites. Many types of sites are far easier to raise in the ranks because the sites have less competition. Real estate has special needs. Reaching page one for "Selling steel roofs" in Alabama is not as difficult (or even the same process) as reaching page one as a realtor in Alabama.
Are they showing you results of a site in an internet community that has a population similar to the competitors in your community?  For example, if they rank page one for "Disc Jockey Service,"  do you believe that there are as many competitors as you have as a realtor in your community?  Do you believe the same level of effort will work to bring a real estate website to the front page search results for Nome Alaska and Dallas Texas? Prove of success in Nome may not say anything about what you should expect of a Dallas Website.
What keywords are successful for the sample websites? Many sites "SEO companies" do minor tweeks to your website, wait 30 days and then point out the wonderfully obscure keywords or long tail keywords that you have "now."   More than likely, you had many of these same obscure or long tail keywords prior to their efforts.  Some "long tail keywords" are meaningful and useful, others are meaningless. Meaningful: "ocean front homes in Crescent City."  Meaningless: "Green homes 5 feet from shore in Crescent City."  If the successful page one keywords are meaningless, they are probably an accident, or the SEO expert targeted them because they were easy to obtain, had little competition and could simply increase your list of page one results without improving your real situation.  Actual example: "Blue homes in Crescent City," the site www.crescentcityrealestateca.com is on page 1, do you believe this is a valuable page one result for this real estate site?
Are the websites actually successful for the keywords specified for a client?  Check the sample pages. You may find that the pages either do not exist or are actually being maintained by the service claiming to support the page.  One service, I am aware of, lists at least 4 of 7 sites that no longer exist or do not actually show up on page 1.  Listing positions changes regularly.  You may be present one week and vanish next week. Position is in constant flux and needs to be monitored regularly and adjusted. Many underhanded things can be done to get you to page one (black hat SEO), but, you may be bumped off page one quickly.
Where on page one are the results? Not all page one positions are equal. Page one position can be position 1, 2, ... maybe 10.   The last few positions on the page are more vulnerable to bouncing off the page over time.  Positions 1, 2, and 3 get the lions share of the visitors. Simple presence on the page is not adequate to add visitors to your site.
How are they providing additional hits?  Many providers offer higher hits, but, do not provide quality hits. Are they going to buy you Adwords, Stumbleupon, Facebook or other ads to bring your visitors?  This could cost you big money and result in little or no help if they have not correctly set up your site to interest visitors, the visitors will bounce off your site.  If they have "cute" sites that have visitors that click on a link to one thing within their site and misdirect to your site, this is valueless ... the visitors will bounce.  If they are "forcing" hits to your site, and the visitors have no interest in buying or selling a home, the "hit" was meaningless and the visitor "bounces" off the site.  If your bounce rate is 65% with 3000 hits, your real hit rate is only 1050 (not nearly what they advertised).   
One realtor reported to me he hired a service to get him more hits. He is in a town with population 5500. Now, he gets 32,000 hits a month. Do you believe he is getting value?  He thinks he is.  My guess, none of the actual clients he has obtained from his website were the result of his expensive hit service. His actual number of clients coming from website has not changed from the period before he began his expensive service, but, he loves to see he has 32,000 hits (and tells everyone his hit rate). 
How will they monitor the conversion rate and bounce rate? What will your bounce rate be?  What will your conversion rate be?  Some people count any hit on your site as a conversion.  As a business person, hits on your site are not a conversion, customer contacts are a conversion. Make certain you are aware what is being offered if the SEO assures you of conversion. If the SEO folks are not setting up to allow you to monitor your results, how are you going to know if you succeeded?  How will you know what keywords are working?  How will you know how many hits you are getting?  How will you know if you are getting paying for people that are bouncing off your site?